Charlotte Bray: Women Make Music

Oxford Lieder’s mission to celebrate the art of song and singing offers a winning combination with composer Charlotte Bray’s new commission of song cycle for baritone and piano. With a compositional voice both striking and original, Charlotte’s talents will be showcased by Roderick Williams and pianist Andrew West performing a song cycle set to Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.

Bray studied under Joe Cutler and graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire with First Class Honours. Then, under Mark Anthony Turnage, she completed her Masters at the Royal College of Music in 2008 gaining a Distinction. She was born in Britain in 1982 and currently lives in Berlin. In 2011 she was made an Honorary Member of Birmingham Conservatoire.

For 2011 Bray has a range of commissions for music festivals at Cheltenham, Little Missenden, Tête a Tête Opera, and Verbier. She looks forward to various performances of her vocal music, including the première of a commission for baritone Roderick Williams, in Oxford Lieder Festival, October 2011. Earlier this year Bray composed a work for Jennifer Pike and the LPO, co-commissioned by the orchestra and London Music Masters.

Appointed apprentice Composer in Residence with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group/Sound and Music for 2009/10, BCMG gave the première of A Match With the Moon (violin & improvised ensemble) and her violin concerto Caught in Treetops conducted by Oliver Knussen. Other notable performances include Beyond a Fallen Tree by the LSO under Daniel Harding (UBS Soundscapes Pioneers commission); Verre de Venise (tenor song cycle) in Aldeburgh, Aix-en-Provence, and Verbier – a co-commission from the three festivals; and her soprano song cycle Midnight Closes, which has been performed on numerous occasions including Wigmore Hall, Music in the Round, and the Purcell Room.